Our People

Katherine White

Katherine White, PhD joined the Psychology Department at the University of Waterloo in 2010, after completing her PhD in Cognitive Science at Brown University (Providence, Rhode Island, USA) and postdoctoral research in the department of Brain & Cognitive Sciences at the University of Rochester (Rochester, New York, USA). She studies the earliest stages of language development in infants and toddlers.

Graduate Students

Emily Shiu

Emily completed both her Bachelor of Arts (BA) in Psychology with a Japanese Certificate I and her Masters of Applied Science (MASc) in Development and Communication Science at the University of Waterloo. She is currently in the PhD program at Waterloo. Her research interests include adult bilingualism, particularly how external cues or contexts may affect a bilingual's language processing.

Ashley Avarino

Ashley completed her Bachelor of Science Honours (BSc) at McMaster University in Psychology, Neuroscience and Behaviour, and recently graduated from the Master of Applied Science (MASc) program at the University of Waterloo. Currently, she is completing her PhD. Her research interests include: audiovisual speech perception, the influence of social factors on language learning, and children’s language-based inferences about people. Some of her favourite things are: Harry Potter, her dog Gigi, summer time, and travelling the world with friends and family!

Leanne Varey

Leanne completed her Bachelor of Arts (BA) in Psychology at the University of Guelph, and her Master of Arts (MA) in Developmental Psychology at Wilfrid Laurier University. She is currently completing her PhD part-time at the University of Waterloo, and her research interests include (1) the early language environment of infants and toddlers (specifically, in naturalistic settings), and (2) the potential impact of siblings on aspects of language development.                              

Leanne enjoys working as a staff member on a Graduate team at the University of Waterloo, going to the cottage in the summer, and spending time with her family and two little girls.

Alexandra Anacleto

Alexandra is an MA student, co-supervised by Dr. Katherine White in LIDL and Roxane Itier in Cognitive Neuroscience. She is currently studying self-referential memory.

Jacky Chen

Jacky completed his BSc in Honours Psychology and is doing his MASc in the lab. He is interested in understanding children's language-based judgments of others and whether bilingual children’s judgments differ from monolingual children.

Brian Kim

Brian is a first year MA student co-supervised by Dr. Katherine White in LIDL and Dr. Myra Fernandes, in Cognitive Neuroscience. His research focuses on memory and second language learning throughout the lifespan.

Madeline Wiseman

Madeline is an MASc student in the lab. She is interested in the language-based predictions infants and toddlers make when listening to people talk.

Kristin O'Neill

Kristin is an MASc student in the lab, who is interested in pursuing studies in speech pathology. She is interested in how children develop language in different environments.

Lab Coordinators

Katie Martin

Katie recently completed a Bachelor of Knowledge Integration degree (Joint Honours Psychology) here at the University of Waterloo. She is now working as a lab coordinator for the Infant and Child Studies Group. She is interested in how children learn language differently than adults and how individuals may use language differently depending on their environment. When not in the lab she is busy spending time playing sports, camping or reading!

Shaneene Heupel

Shaneene recently completed her MA in Developmental Psychology with the Lab for Infant Development and Language (LIDL) and is now working as a lab coordinator for the Infant and Child Studies Group. She is interested in how disfluencies in speech can affect toddlers’ perceptions of speaker knowledge. When not in the lab she is busy spending time outside, travelling, or doing something creative!

Honours Thesis Students

Kate McCrimmon

Kate is in her fourth year of a Bachelor of Arts in Honours Psychology, doing an honours thesis in the lab. Kate is interested in how children interpret language from adults versus children.

Spencer Kramer

Spencer is an honours thesis student, co-supervised by Dr. White in LIDL and Dr. Fugelsang in Cognitive. He is interested in how repeating things makes them seem more true.

Ana Ljujc

Ana is in her 4th year of Honours Psychology. She is an honours thesis student in LIDL, studying how bilingual and monolingual children talk to different people. Her goal is to pursue graduate school in developmental psychology.

Directed Studies Students

Joanna Xiong

Joanna is a fourth year BSc Psychology student doing a project in the lab. She is interested in studying the cognitive processes underlying language learning in children. She hopes to pursue graduate school in developmental psychology in the future.

Research Assistants

Joey Ou

Joey is a fourth-year Honours Arts (BA) Psychology minoring in Social Development Studies with a Research-Intensive Specialization. She is currently in the lab as a research assistant, mainly helping with the LENA studies and CORAL online testing. Here at the University of Waterloo, she is also involved with volunteering at the Early Childhood Education Centre. In the future, she wishes to pursue a career in developmental psychology and education. Outside of the lab, she enjoys crocheting, doing yoga, and solving puzzles. 

Greg Shaikevich 

Greg is currently in his fifth year of a BA in Psychology with a Research Intensive Specialization. He is a member of Dr. Katherine White’s Lab for Infant Development and Language (LIDL) and Dr. Mike Dixon’s Gambling Research Lab. Greg is currently working on an Honours Thesis under the supervision of Jonathan Fugelsang.

Shaza Syed

Shaza is an undergraduate research assistant. She is currently helping with transcription of LIDL’s take-home studies.

Olivia Bartels 

Olivia is currently in her third year of Honours Psychology (BA) at the University of Waterloo, with a minor in Studio Arts. She is excited to be working with LIDL as a research assistant. In the future, she is interested in pursuing graduate studies in the area of developmental psychology.

Ariel Burbano 

Ariel is a research assistant in the lab. She is helping out with our take-home studies as a transcriber.

Suevin Un

Linda Di

Ena Choi

Visiting Students

Natália Costa

Natália is an undergraduate psychology student from Brazil. Natália completed a semester abroad with the lab in 2021 and has continued to be involved since. She is broadly interested in language acquisition and plans to pursue a Master's degree to study child development.

Alumni

Post Doc Students

Amélie Bernard 

Graduate Students

Anita Abeyesekera (MASc student)

Nasim Ahmadpour (MASc student/Undergraduate Research Assistant)

Rachel Benninger (MASc student/Undergraduate Research Assistant)

Eryn Bonney-Brookman (MA student)

Dana Bernier (PhD Student)

Shaneene Heupel (Independent Study/MA Student)

Irisa Hu (MASc Student)

Jessica Huang (MASc; NSERC USRA)

Erin Kim (MASc Student/Lab Coordinator)

Dominique Louer (MASc Student)

Alex Rett (MASc Student/NSERC USRA Student)

Jillian Rioux (MASc Student)

Robin Rosentrer (MASc student)

Ragini Suresh (MASc Student/Lab Coordinator/Undergraduate Research Assistant)

Drew Weatherhead (PhD Student)

Torin Young (MA student)

Lab Coordinators

Ashley Blayney-Hoffer (Lab Coordinator)

Sarah Doyle (Lab Coordinator)

Joel Le Forestier (Lab Coordinator)

Emily McIntosh (Lab Coordinator)

Melissa Nikkel (Lab Coordinator)

Shaquille Sealy (Lab Coordinator)

Jen Smith (Lab Coordinator; NSERC USRA)

Natalie Szerwinski (Lab Coordinator; NSERC USRA)

Annika Voss (Lab Coordinator/NSERC USRA Student)

Honours Students

Celine Chui (Honours Student)

Taylor Columbus (Honours Student)

Olivia Daub (Honours Student/NSERC USRA Student)

Carry Derome (Honours Student)

Sam Faulker (Honours Student)

Alex Heap (Honours Student)

Shirley He (Honours Student/NSERC USRA Student)

Nicole Ho (Honours Student/Research Assistant)

Richard Holmes (Honours Student/Undergraduate Research Assistant)

Gloria Ip (Honours Student/Undergraduate Research Assistant)

Vibhuti Jethava (Honours Student)

Erik Johnson (Honours Student)

Mary Krupicz (Honours Student)

Phoebe Liang (Honours Student)

Zack Miller (Honours Student/Undergraduate Research Assistant)

AJ Orena (Honours Student/NSERC USRA Student/Undergraduate Research Assistant)

Sneha Patel (Honours Student)

Jingeli Ren (Honours Student)

Taylor Riemersma (Honours Student/NSERC USRA Student)

Katelyn Rowe (Honours Student/NSERC USRA Student)

Bronte Smith (Honours Student)

Janey Tso (Honours Student)

Tim Woerle (Honours Student/Undergraduate Research Assistant)

NSERC USRA Students

Kas Woodland (NSERC USRA Student/Undergraduate Research Assistant)

Madeline Crichton (NSERC USRA Student)

Jennifer Smith (NSERC USRA Student/Lab Coordinator)

Independent Study Students

Rachel Thorburn (Independent Study/Undergraduate Research Assistant)

Undergraduate Research Assistants

Elaina Bentz (Undergraduate Research Assistant)

Roshni Bhat (Undergraduate Research Assistant)

Riley Brennan (Undergraduate Research Assistant)

Laura Brooks (Undergraduate Research Assistant)

Heather Bunnett-Jones (Undergraduate Research Assistant)

Katelyn Burden (Undergraduate Research Assistant)

Kyra Cahill (Undergraduate Research Assistant)

Madeline Crichton (NSERC USRA)

Dana Darjazini (Undergraduate Research Assistant)

Jenna Denomme (Undergraduate Research Assistant)

Gurleen Dulay (Undergraduate Research Assistant)

Rebecca Joy Dunk (Undergraduate Research Assistant)

Ivanna Ennett (Undergraduate Research Assistant)

Shanan Floto (Undergraduate Research Assistant)

Olivia Halley (Undergraduate Research Assistant)

Rachael Linda Hamm (Undergraduate Research Assistant)

Emil Harvey (Undergraduate Research Assistant)

Mackenzie Hayden (Undergraduate Research Assistant)

Maya Karmakar-Johnson (Undergraduate Research Assistant)

Yasaman Keshavarz (Undergraduate Research Assistant)

Justin Leung (Undergraduate Research Assistant)

Amy Liang (Undergraduate Research Assistant)

Anielle Lim (Undergraduate Research Assistant)

Kate McLeod (Undergraduate Research Assistant)

Katie Nielsen (Undegraduate Research Assistant) 

Surabhi Pal (Undergraduate Research Assistant)

Austin Penner (Undergraduate Research Assistant)

Laura Rance (Undergraduate Research Assistant)

Amy Ro (Undergraduate Research Assistant)

Catherine Rocha (Undergraduate Research Assistant)

Kaitlyn Rota (Undergraduate Research Assistant)

Amelia Rutledge (Undergraduate Research Assistant)

Kavita Schaffer (Undergraduate Research Assistant)

Ashley Shilliday (Undergraduate Research Assistant)

Anum Syeda  (Undergraduate Research Assistant)

Ayah Taji (Undergraduate Research Assistant)

Kristen Thompson (Undergraduate Research Assistant)

Mackenzie Vallee (NSERC USRA)

Giulia Vintila (Undergraduate Research Assistant)

Annika Voss (NSERC USRA)

Chloe Whitham (Undergraduate Research Assistant)

Kasondra Woodland (NSERC USRA)

Amy Xu (Undergraduate Research Assistant)

Grace Yang (Undergraduate Research Assistant)

Rachel Yee (Undergraduate Research Assistant)

Sophie Yung (Undergraduate Research Assistant)

Peiyao Zhang (Undergraduate Research Assistant)